Hurricane Preparedness.

Two more storms on the way the big orange blob by Africa doesn't look friendly.

Is preparedness a real word? It doesn't sound like it. HUNKER DOWN! If you were here for the big five hurricanes you hate me now for that.
 Well, it's hurricane season again and we've got another hurricane with it's sites set on Florida. Well, just left of Florida. Are you prepared? They get people worked up so bad on the TV "We don't want to have what we had in New Orleans." "Be sure you have a three day supply of water and food and flash lights and bla, bla, bla. Over and over again.

Hurricane supplies. That's right we are going to drink the rum. Or some of it.

Truth is here in the smack center of the state a Cat 1 hurricane is more like an afternoon thunderstorm that is off and on all day for a day or two. And what you need to stock up on... well if you buy your supplies now you wont have to worry about them later when a bigger storm comes.
Some people had to go a week or two with no electricity during the big five but that was just pockets of people that were in hard to get to places. Most stores have back up generators now so they can be up and running as soon as their employees can show up for work. If your elderly you may want to plan on getting a hotel for a few days to avoid the heat.  You could try one of those generators but unless you have a really big one they aren't going to be able to run an air conditioner and a refrigerator and a television. So you may want get ready to ruff it out. Here is what you will really need.

1. Alternative light: sure flash lights work great for porting to the potty but for sitting around playing cards you are better off with a hurricane lamp. They will stay lit for ever with out having to refill the oil and are a lot cheaper in the long run. 
2. Games, books and things to do with out the T.V. 
3. Alternative cooking method: We just bar b qued for a couple of days. We kept the meat cold with ice in the cooler and then cooked it all at once so it would stay fresh longer. Worked good.
4. Water: We stocked up on the drinking water but forgot to fill our tub. We were on a well and with no electricity there is no water. We were prepared for water contamination and had plenty of bottled water but the big problem was a lack of toilet flushing water. We ended up going to the local grocery store with our big jugs and they filled them with water from the sink in the back.
5. Gas: I never plan on going any where but you never know so I always fill the car up just in case and then at least I don't have to later. Also the gas trucks wont come for a while after the roads are clear. Here in Florida if the hurricane hits the Gulf side sometimes they close the refinery and gas is hard to come by for a couple of days.
6. Bread: I'd stock up on bread and in fact I have. After the hurricanes the bread was sold out for days. The trucks can't run for a few days till the roads are clear so you have to make due with what the store has and I think everyone around here must have lived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Cause it was sold out for about a week after the hurricane.
7. Food that does not require refrigeration: You want to be sure to have enough snack foods. Crackers, chips, cookies. We also get dried fruit, granola bars and some canned meat mostly tuna, and sardines. Maybe a canned ham. And then we can always donate it to a homeless person or shelter after hurricane season if it doesn't get eaten. Duh! can opener to go with the food.
8. Toilet paper: Just because.
9. Ice: of course.
10.  Clean up materials.  Ax or Chainsaw, Rakes, hedge clippers, big black bags.

New toy!

 This year I got a weather radio. It is also a siren, an AM/FM radio, a flash light, and a cell phone charger. It has a USB port. It is also powered by rechargeable batteries that collect electricity by cranking it or by solar power. It has a solar charge panel. So you can just put it in the sun for a day. No cranking at all. It also has a spot to put head phones and a place to attach a regular plug.

But after I got it home I found out you have to insert the rechargeable batteries to keep it charged but the screw on the battery hatch was very small requiring me to go out an buy screw drivers. Always test all your supplies like radios, chainsaws, and generators before the hurricane so you are sure how they work when you need them.


New screw drivers.

You will also want to have first aid supplies on hand. One year during one of the hurricanes, between the waves of rain, my mothers neighbor climbed a tree(100ft high) to saw off the top before the whole tree fell on another neighbors house. A large gust of wind blew and he flew right out of the tree. Luckily his chainsaw was unharmed but he suffered a broken arm. Ambulances and police weren't running so he had to tough it out until the storm let up. (Note to self: put more aspirin in the first aid kit)

After the hurricane everyone always pitches in and helps everyone out. It only takes a few days around here to clear the roads and pick up debris.  Blue tarps show up every where I don't know where people were getting them. I think they were giving them out free last hurricane. Of course,  major repair jobs take longer to clean up. Like trees on houses and roofs ripped up. But in general people came out right after the storm. During the big five people came out every time a band cleared. We picked up the tree branches, sawed down the ones that looked like they were falling then fled back inside till the next wave of wind and rain came. Of course I'm not recommending anyone go out in a storm. And if you climb a tree be prepared to get blown out of it.

 We have had to evacuate before and then drive back as soon as possible. Of course you have your car all packed with stuff to take with you, that's a whole other list. One important thing you want to check for, if you plan to evacuate, is keeping good tires on your car. This year we will be hunkering down at home and my tires are bald as can be. The main threat in driving after a storm  is always a chance of downed power lines. The power companies will cut power to some areas because of the live lines on the ground but that is no garantee the line is dead even days later it may have power to it and is deadly. My best advice is steer clear of them. We have had to drive over a few downed lines but I'm sure the power was probably cut to them. It's super dangerous. Also you want to be careful of debris after the storm. There  maybe some wind causing branches, leaves and stuff  to be still blowing around. Also flooded areas: it may look like a shallow puddle and then be really deep. Rule of thumb there are no traffic lights all lights become a four way stop. Even when green because the lights tend to get all screwy and blink what ever color. Use caution at all intersections. I know a lot of people want to drive around and look at the damage in there neighbor hood. My best suggestion is walking but then you have to be careful of displaced animals so take a big stick.

Oh yeah and don't get too smashed at the hurricane party or the next day when you have to do all that clean up it will be no fun.

Wild Boar attack

Every morning I walk my dog around the house. Well, this morning just as we were about to go back inside we came upon a wild boar standing between us and the front door. At first I thought it was a pet of one of my neighbors. It was black with fluffy fur all over no bald spots and it even had a beautiful long fuzzy tail. I clapped and shouted at it but it just stood it's ground and looked at us as if it wanted to eat us.

Sus scrofa, is the name of Florida wild hogs.

Soon I noticed it had tusk about three inches maybe four inches long and I new right then that I was faced with a giant wild hog. The only thing I know about hogs is they have been known to eat people and are very unpredictable and dangerous. I couldn't make it to my front door and I didn't have the car keys to jump in the car. I thought about jumping in the back of my husbands pickup truck but I didn't think I could do it fast enough with out letting go of my dogs leash. So I stood my ground. And yelled for my husband as loud as I could. No one came not even a neighbor. I could be getting murdered and no one would ever know. I backed up against the truck. My faithful dog stood barking between me and the wild beast. 

 All of a sudden it blinked and then came charging at us I thought "this is it I'm going to die" but my little dog, half dachshund half chihuahua, (Chiweenie) morphed into a hound from hell. His fur standing even higher on end, his mouth tripling in size as he went charging toward it jumping up and doing a full body slam against the side of the beast as he bit at it's cheek. The hog was so stunned it gave me time to run like heck to the neighbors house,  dragging my little dog by his choke chain the whole way, I banged furiously on the door. Finally after what seemed an eternity the woman answered. Rubbing her eyes she says "What?" I said "There is a big pig in my yard!" and she looked at me like I was crazy. But when she came and saw it she was like "Oh my what do we do?" The big boar stood staring at us. And I was ready to knock this woman down run past her right in her house. But it decided it had enough of my little dog and just walked away down the road.

Pictures were taken when it came back.

The whole time I though I wish I had my camera. But I was glad to be able to get back to my house. I got my husband who barely believed me. He went out side to see if he could see any thing and sure enough the pig had come back. Just as black and fluffy as can be. So I got the camera and snapped some shots. I was scared to get too close to it after being charged at so that's why the pictures aren't the best. 

 

When I got to work and told my story one of the ladies I work with asked "Did that pig have a fluffy tail?"  Yes it did. I never expected a wild animal to look so nice and fluffy. Well it turns out the same pig was at her house the day before. It attacked her horses and cut a six inch gash into one of them. They hunted it for a while with big hunting dogs but when the dogs had it trapped it bowled right through them and escaped.  I guess I was luckier than I thought. Turns out this boar was very aggressive and had already attacked other animals. I'm glad I called the sheriff and I hope they got it while I was at work. If not I hope it doesn't come back.

Rainbow Springs State Park

After tubing we were all hungry and decided to go to the State Park and cook up some hot dogs.

Husbands enjoying the picnic pavilion.

 We checked out the swimming hole. Everyone decided it looked more like a swimming pool. The water is right out of the spring (you could drink it) and clear and clean as can be with no chlorine needed. The water is deep about 11 to 12  feet and the only way in is to jump. It's about a five foot jump off the dock area into cold 72 degree water. They don't allow plastic floats in the water but you can bring a noodle.

Crystal blue swimming hole.

No one really wanted to take the plunge but be did find a very small area surrounded by weeds and got our feet wet. I was half expecting an alligator to be under the weeds but we didn't see one alligator all day.

This is what the lush green water plants look look like from below.

There was a bunch of fish till we chased them away. But you can still see the one lone fish in the middle.

There is a lot to see and do at Rainbow Springs other than swimming. There are water falls that were built years ago when it was a tourist attraction. They are always so romantic to look at. They have beautiful flowers planted around them and there is always something blooming but the best time to see them is of course the spring.

Romantic photo spot.

The falls go under the walks and the trail meanders around so you can see all of them.

A variety of mosses.

You can see some of the flowers here.

 Some one always tries to climb the falls but it clearly states on a sign that it's not allowed. I bet a climbing wall near here would be a nice addition.

I think this is the largest of the falls.

For some reason they don't advertise it but there is the ruins of an old zoo on the property as well. We imagined there were monkeys and tigers here but probably it was just goats and maybe some horses. Youngest daughter was brave enough to enter one of the cages to see if she could get a clue of what might have been in there but all she found was a big banana spider.

Monkey in a cage.

The only animals living in the zoo now were the spiders and one little squirrel.

Zoo creature!

 Past the zoo area is the butterfly garden. I like this part because of all the native plants they've got that I've never even seen. When I see these for sale I'm going to start collecting them. They are drought tolerant and much better for the environment not to mention my pay check.

Entrance to the butterfly garden.

 Wish I would have taken photo's of the names of the plants because by the time I'm writing this I have no idea what they were.


Not sure what this is but it kind of looks like a pine cone with flowers on it.



Butterfly milk weed.



I think this is beach sunflower.

 After walking around we were all pooped out and ready to go home. Also a summer storm blew in and made sure it was time to go. This is definitely a great place if you like to explore.

Rainbow springs

We decided to take my sister and her hubby to Rainbow Springs for tubing. The thought was it would be more relaxing than canoeing and actually it was. We did a short two hour float down the slow moving Rainbow River. It was just the right length for us. And then we went in the state park head spring area for a look around and to have a picnic lunch.

Here we are at the beginning floating away from each other.

Your not allowed to bring disposable items on the river so we got a variety of water bottles some steel water bottles, some plastic and tied string to them and then tied them to our floats and they all seemed to work out great. K found a children's plastic cantine with a strap that worked great for her. We also brought a plastic zip lock bag for other things we didn't want wet. But they would hold things like car keys etc at the beginning for $2.00.

Below us it looked like a lush grass field.

We saw lot's of wild life but unfortunately this is the only bird picture we got.

 As we went down we saw lot's of wild life turtles, birds of all kinds, diving for fish, and of course fish. Unfortunately we were having such a great time we didn't get any of the pictures of them.

Floating away

The river wines in and out of a nice neighbor hood on one side and the State Park on the other side. Some of the houses were very nice. We didn't feel right about taking pictures of peoples back yards so if you want to see the houses you'll have to take a float your self.

Waiting for us at the shallow area.

 We soon found  ourselves getting separated from each other. As we each floated off in our own little world of rainbow riverness. Eventually we decided to use the water bottles and the string tied to them, to help keep us all connected and then started floating as one big raft.

Some of us went down backward.



Some were sideways. Check out how K decided to ride on her float. Upside down.

This was worth the trip. I think I could have gone longer if we had taken food with us. The water was nice and cool despite the heat we were all comfortable.  It was very relaxing. Later we took pictures at the head springs. I'll put those on another post.

Daytona Pier and diner at Joe's

My sister is down again for a visit. We like to take her and her husband around to see different things. We started off with a trip to Daytona for dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. The weather was good, a storm blew in as we ate  but not a bad one. The food was great the pier was a lot of fun. And I think we all had a good time.

Walking down the pier to Joe's.

 The pier is actually used for fishing too but it has a huge restaurant (Joe's Crab Shack) plopped right in the middle. The views from inside the restaurant were great. You could always walk to the left of Joe's, where there was pizza and ice cream  or you could check out the gift shop. The new pier is bring life back to old Daytona.


Getting ready to order. The atmosphere was great.

 Waiting was a lot of fun. And we had a wait. The waiters did a dance to entertain everyone and the decorations were modern beach hippie. It was a little loud for older people but the view of the beach was just awesome. A must see!

The food finally came and was pretty good. Lobster and crab how could you go wrong. They also had other items on the menu.

 We got large buckets of lobster and crab and also fish and crab cakes served with these weird onion ring things. All of the food was very good. And we ordered drinks that came with a free glass mug that had the crab shack logo on it. It was a nice souvenir for my sister and her husband.

Daytona board walk.

And then of course afterward we had to take a walk on the world famous Daytona Beach board walk. It's a great place to go at night. Lot's of fun.

Walking the dog at Haines Creek/ Blount Island

So... in our neighbor hood is a secret place. People have lived here for years and drive by it everyday and don't even know it is there. The entrance is not that of some big fancy park and there isn't any fancy jungle gym or much of anything really. Just an island that is tucked away off the road.



Entrance to the park.

So I thought I would show my friend CG, who also lives in the neighborhood. We got our faithful companions and decided to drag them along. And in the case of my spoiled dog that was about the truth of it.

Sitting on the swing at the Haines Creek part of the park.

 The front part of the park has a nice picnic area and a cool bench swing to sit and enjoy the beautiful view of the canal. So of course we had to try it out.

CG's dog checking out the knolls.

 CG's dog DD decided to have a look at the cypress knees. I've always heard them called cypress knolls but I guess they are also called knees. When I was little I was told it was the tree's noses. And I remember thinking how gross it would be if they sneezed, it would land right in the water. But I guess that they are now saying these are not the tree's noses, that help the roots to oxygenate the tree when under water. They are to help keep the tree stable in the wet area where these trees grow. So it's like they are sticking their knees up. I think the nose story sounds better. Plus you can say you touched a tree right on it's nose.

Close up of cypress knee's. They even look like noses.

Under the bridge that leads to the island

 A few years ago you could drive right on the island but I guess the bridge got week and now it's foot traffic only. Which is just at well because it's such a nice walk.

Looking off the bridge

All around the island is a canal that leads out to the main part of Haines Creek. I don't know if the canal was man made or not. Each person keeps up there section of it so some have sand bags and some docks and some it's just natural dirt into the water.

Sign at the entrance of the island.

 Most of the trail is over grown with muscadine grape vines. Some areas the vines grow right over the trail and it is like going through tunnels.

On the trail.

Leaves!

Hidden in the tons of grape vines is black berry bushes. I'm not sure what variety but they have lots of thorns! I'm glad the park service keeps them at bay but I'd hate to see them smothered out by all the grapes.

Muscadine grapes on the vine

You can get an idea of the size of these grapes.

Some fresh green ones growing in the Florida sunshine.

I read some where that muscadine grapes were native to Florida and at one time all the grapes in France got some sort of decease and were at risk of dieing out, so... they took native Florida grape vine roots, which are very hardy and can live through about anything, and grafted the French vine onto our roots. So next time your drinking fancy French wine just remember your really drinking  wine that wouldn't exist without the help of the good old Florida muscadine.

Butterfly!

 There were lot's of other things to see besides grapes. We saw lot's of butterflies and some really pretty flowers.

Not sure what this flower is called but it was sure putting on a show.

Beauty berries. Similar to Poke weed but the berries are bunched up more.

Looking into the middle of the island

The interior of the island looked like a ancient jungle with all the vines and huge ferns. And I guess my dog thought he was in the jungle because he soon wanted to be carried. We had to stop and give him water and encouragement to get him moving forward again so he would stop jumping up and down in front of me with that carry me mommy face.  

We brought lot's of water as the weather was hot. And some coconut water too, to help rehydrate us.

Here is my baby getting some encouragement form CG's dog.

As out of shape as this dog looks she was gung ho the whole way. I guess it was the hound dog in her.

Lead dog!

On the way back to the parking lot my dog was at the front dragging me the whole way. But I think he had a good time. I know I did. This turned out to be an excellent place to walk our dogs.